The present invention relates to an optical flip-flop circuit that receives and produces an optical signal and operates in such a way as to hold a binary state by assuming one of two possible states, 1 for a set state and
Flip-flop circuits known today that are capable of operating on digital signals are limited to those based on electronic circuits.
Optical computers which once were a mere interest in laboratories have recently evolved into the stage where the prospects of using them in commercial applications are not far into the future, and this has necessitated the development of flip-flops, latch memories and other optical memory circuits that are capable of performing various logic operations in response to the reception of optical signals. However, with the state of the art, it has been very difficult to have conventional electronic circuits operate in response to optical signals without suffering from the disadvantage of increased complexity in circuit configurations.